


Flu

by richmahogany



Category: Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 08:48:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016569
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/richmahogany/pseuds/richmahogany
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alex is at work, but where is Bobby? Has he caught the 'Blue Flu'?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flu

**Author's Note:**

> My first foray into fan fiction. In fact, I haven't written any fiction for a long time, but was inspired to give it a try because I like the characters so much. With guest appearance by my very own bookcases.

The call had gone out, and many had responded. After weeks of fruitless negotiations over pay and benefits it had been decided that it was time for action. Or rather inaction: an epidemic of the Blue Flu was sweeping through the NYPD, and anyone thus afflicted had stayed at home today.

At the Major Case Squad the ranks were not noticeably depleted, but Detective Alex Eames was staring across her desk at an empty space. She had been surprised and a little smug when she arrived for work this morning and found she had beaten her partner to it. This hardly ever happened. She had long suspected that he came to work at 7 am at the latest – that is, if he went home in the first place. But today finally she was the first to arrive. She poured herself a coffee and settled down to work.

The morning wore on, but there was no sign of Bobby. She looked again at his empty chair and frowned. Where was he? Surely the libraries were only opening just now? Or had there been some emergency involving his mother? She tried to ring him, but there was no answer. Oh well, she thought. Maybe he had had a sudden epiphany and discovered the meaning of ‘A Good Night’s Sleep’. It was actually quite nice to be getting on with work without having to mentally shut out someone’s constant fidgeting.

Alex looked up to see Captain Ross hovering beside her desk.

‘I wouldn’t have thought Goren to be susceptible to the Blue Flu,’ he said. Neither would Alex, but she was not prepared to discuss Goren’s politics – or lack thereof – with the captain. Instead she said: ‘I don’t know where he is. He doesn’t answer either of his phones.’

‘Try to find him, and let me know,’ said Ross and moved away.

It was now past lunchtime, and she still hadn’t heard from Bobby. She decided it was time to start looking for him, and drove to his apartment. After several minutes of knocking and shouting he finally opened the door. When she saw him, she knew immediately why he was not at work today. He was clearly ill and could barely stay upright. He only said ‘Oh,’ and shuffled back into his living room, leaving her to close the door behind her.

When she came in, Bobby had flopped down on the couch and tried to pull the blanket up. His eyes were red and his t-shirt soaked with sweat. On the table were an empty packet of Aspirin and an almost empty box of tissues. Alex sat down on a chair opposite and asked: ‘Why didn’t you call in sick? Nobody knows where you are. The captain’s asked after you.’

Bobby smiled weakly. ‘On any other day I would have, but if I had called today and said I have the flu, who would have believed me?’

Alex only huffed at that. She got up and went into his bedroom. After several tries she found a drawer with clean t-shirts and grabbed one. She then had a quick look round the kitchen, but did not see anything that looked edible to her.

She went back to the living room and tossed Bobby the shirt. ‘Here, put that on. I’m going to do some shopping.’

It didn’t take her long to gather up some flu meds, a few cans of soup and a packet of crackers. When she came back, letting herself in with Bobby’s key, he was dozing on the couch. She went into the kitchen and warmed some soup in the microwave. She then put the soup, the crackers, the flu meds and a glass of water down in front of Bobby and shook him slightly. ‘Hey!’ she said. ‘Soup’s ready.’ He groaned and tried to turn away, but she shook him a bit harder and said sternly: ‘Eat!’ Realising that resistance was futile, he pushed himself upright and slowly started to spoon the soup into his mouth. Once Alex was sure that he was actually eating, she returned to the kitchen to do a bit of tidying up. It took her a while, since there was quite a pile of dirty dishes, and she had to hunt for a clean dishcloth to use.

When she came back into the living room, Bobby had fallen asleep again, not having quite finished his soup. Alex decided to give him a few minutes. If he woke up again soon, maybe she could force him to eat some more, and then try to get him into his bed.

She amused herself by prowling around his room. She had only been here a few times, and this was her chance to have a good look around. Serves him right to be on the receiving end for once, she thought. Shame he’s not awake to see it. I bet he’d get really annoyed.

This was certainly not the place of someone who entertained a lot. She’d bet that he hadn’t let anyone in for quite some time.  It was pretty untidy, with a few dirty coffee cups dotted around and small piles of CD’s and magazines on the floor. The table had his laptop in the centre, but the remaining surface was covered in heaps of paper and small stacks of books. It occurred to her that maybe she should check at some point whether any of them were due back at the library.

She wandered over to the bookcases. The books seemed to be roughly sorted by size, but otherwise not in any particular order. She knew that he had lived in this apartment for years, but it looked as if he had taken the books out of the boxes when he moved in, put them on the shelves any way they came and then left it at that. One shelf held textbooks on forensic science, profiling and medicine, but also on physics and biology, a cookbook, a large catalogue from the Seoul Museum of History and ‘Fighting Aircraft of World War II’. The shelf below contained a row of paperbacks, including a couple of historical novels by Patrick O’Brian (she remembered the nautical paintings on the covers, her uncle had a whole bunch of these), a translation of the Iliad, Sun Tzu’s ‘The Art of War’ (of course: no bachelor pad would be complete without it), something entitled ‘A Distant Mirror’ (this looked historical, too), a couple of slim volumes in what she presumed to be German, and – she noted with an amused smile – ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

Behind her Bobby snorted and shifted on the couch, but didn’t wake up. Alex looked at her watch. She had to get back to work. She decided that Bobby could just as well stay where he was for now. It was probably better to let him sleep. She put the crackers, the flu meds and a fresh glass of water within his reach, pulled the blanket up to his chin and let herself out. She would come back tomorrow to check on him.

Back at the office she was just hanging up her coat when Ross came over to her. ‘Well,’ he said,’ did you find him?’

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Captain, you are not going to believe this – he’s actually got the flu!’


End file.
